


Post-Partum Depression

by Vigs



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Dark, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 02:46:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4649271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vigs/pseuds/Vigs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gems have no instincts relating to caring for infants, or even finding them cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Post-Partum Depression

It had been a month now since Rose Quartz had died and this squalling, messy, hungry thing had taken her place. There had been a brief discussion of leaving it with Greg, but his van was too small and unsanitary to host the fragile, needy creature, and so responsibility for it had fallen on the gems.

Specifically, and unsurprisingly, it had fallen on Pearl. Amethyst enjoyed making faces at the thing and watching it respond, but had no patience for any duties beyond entertaining it; Garnet would care for it for a while, but inevitably became frustrated when it wouldn’t respond the way it was supposed to, and had to remove herself from its presence.

It was so very, very fragile, even for a human. Pearl could place a finger on its head just so and actually feel its brain pulsing just under its skin, unprotected by the pseudo-stone of a skull. Too much pressure on that spot would end this just-started life.

Pearl guided the infant’s useless arms into the sleeves of a tiny shirt, trying not to look at the gem that covered most of its stomach. It was obscene, Rose Quartz’s gem on this...this...poorly-designed mechanism for converting formula to feces. Every time she looked at it, Pearl wanted to pry it off him and take it to a place of safety and honor.

What would happen if she did? The question haunted her. If she did pry off Rose’s gem, or perhaps simply accidentally press too hard on that delicate, pulsing spot on his head...what would happen? Pearl had seen Rose reduced to a gem before, had cried over her and protected her until she came back, more determined than ever but still the same Rose Quartz.

Pearl had done a great deal of research into the care of human infants, and there was such a long list of things that could kill them. Sometimes she had daydreams about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. So sorry your experiment didn’t work out, Rose…

She wanted to ask Garnet what would happen, what she saw. With so many ways for a human infant to die, she must see a future or two that would answer Pearl’s question.

Steven gurgled up at her, smiling. Pearl reached out a finger and let him grab it in his tiny fist, latching on with all his pitiable strength.

“Are you in there, Rose?” she whispered. “Do you remember me? Do you remember being you?”

Pearl delicately pried her finger out of Steven’s grip, and very gently placed it against the soft spot on his head. Fontanelle, that was the clinical name for it, she remembered. She glanced around the room, fully expecting to see Garnet running out to stop her, but she and the infant remained alone.

If Garnet didn’t prevent her from taking a particular course of action, did that imply her approval? Did it imply that Rose was trapped in this tiny mass of flesh, waiting to be freed, and that Garnet could forsee a tearful, grateful reunion?

She pressed down slightly, not enough to perturb the infant, just enough to feel that slight give. There was his brain, an unformed mass of inefficient human neurons, a clone of Greg Universe’s brain without the lifetime of experiences that had led him to this town and that awful van. Could a human infant really be called properly sentient? It was more of a proto-life than an actual living being.

If only she knew for sure that Rose would come back. Pearl imagined it and unintentionally created a holographic image of her love and her liege, standing over her, tall and magnificent. Her beautiful hair, her majestic frame, and of course her lovely face…

Which was looking down at Pearl with a sad, pitying expression. Pearl deactivated the hologram, removed her finger from the child’s head, and finished dressing him.

This was what Rose had chosen, incomprehensible though it was. He was a human, and he would die before too very many years had passed, and then Pearl would either have Rose back or lose her entirely.

But he would not die by Pearl’s hand. She wouldn’t take the choice away from Rose.

When Steven was settled in his crib, Pearl turned to go back to her room. Garnet was standing in the doorway.

“Were you going to stop me?” Pearl asked.

“No,” Garnet said firmly. “I never needed to.”


End file.
